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who hated him for the holiness both of his life and of his doctrine, did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most violent and ignominious death, he, in compliance with the secret design of his Father, did not only go through the dismal series of sufferings, with the most entire resignation to his Father's will, and with the highest charity possible towards those who were his most unjust and malicious murderers; but he at the same time underwent great agonies in his mind, which struck him with such an amazement and sorrow even to the death, that upon it he did sweat great drops of blood, and on the cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts that till then had ever supported him, when he cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is not easy for us to apprehend in what that agony consisted, for we understand only the agonies of pain or of conscience, which last arise out of the horrors of guilt, or the apprehension of the wrath of God. It is, indeed, certain, that he who had no sin could have no such horror in him; and yet it is as certain that he could not be put into such an agony only through the apprehension and fear of that violent death which he was to suffer next day; therefore we ought to conclude that there was an inward suffering in his mind, as well as an outward visible one in his body. We cannot distinctly apprehend what that was, since he was sure of his own spotless innocence and of his Father's unchangeable love to him; we can only imagine a vast sense of

the heinousness of sin, and a deep indignation at the dishonour done to God by it; a melting apprehension at the corruption and miseries of mankind by reason of sin, together with a never-before felt withdrawing of those consolations that had always filled his soul; but what might be further in his agony and in his last dereliction, we cannot distinctly apprehend; only this we perceive, that our minds are capable of great pain as well as our bodies are: deep horror, with an inconsolable sharpness of thought, is a very intolerable thing. Notwithstanding the bodily or substantial in-dwelling of the fulness of the Godhead in him, yet he was capable of feeling vast pain in his body; so that he might become a complete sacrifice, and that we might have from his sufferings a very full and amazing apprehension of the guilt of sin; all those emanations of joy with which the in-dwelling of the Eternal Word had ever till then filled his soul, might then, when he needed them most, be quite withdrawn, and he be left merely to the firmness of his faith, to the patient resignation to the will of his heavenly Father, and to his willing readiness of drinking up that cup which his Father had put in his hand to drink.

"There remains but one thing to be remembered here, though it will come to be more specially explained when other Articles are to be opened; which is, that this reconciliation, which is made by the death of Christ between God and man, is not absolute and without conditions. He has estab

lished the covenant, and has performed all that was incumbent on him, as both the priest and the sacrifice, to do and to suffer; and he offers 'this to the world, that it may be closed with by them on the terms on which it is proposed; and if they do not accept of it upon these conditions, and perform what is enjoined them, they can have no share in it."a

ARTICLE THE THIRD.

OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL.

As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed that he went down into Hell.

THAT Christ descended into Hell is not expressly asserted by any of the Evangelists; but they all relate that he expired upon the cross, and that after three days he again appeared alive; and therefore it may be inferred that in the intermediate time his soul went into the common receptacle for departed souls. But a more direct proof of this proposition may be found in St. Peter's Sermon, after the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, in which he applies to the

a Burnet.

There is no single word in our language which has this signification; but we are told that this was formerly the sense of the Saxon word Hell, though it now always

means the place of the punishment of the wicked, after the general judgment, as opposed to heaven, the place of the reward of the righteous.

Acts, ii. 27.

a

resurrection of our Saviour the passage in the Psalms: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Christ's soul must have been in hell, since God is here represented as not finally leaving it here, but as re-uniting it to the body of Christ, after a certain interval; and, therefore, AS CHRIST DIED FOR US AND WAS BURIED, SO ALSO IS IT TO BE BELIEVED THAT HE WENT DOWN INTO HELL. It is to be observed that the word rendered "Hell" in the above passage, both in the Septuagint translation of the Psalms, and in the Acts, is 'Aons, Hades. Dr. Campbell has shown that this word, which occurs eleven times in the New Testament, and is very frequently used in the Septuagint translation of the Old, never signifies in Scripture the place of torment, to which the wicked are to be consigned after the day of judgment, but always the place appropriated for the common reception of departed souls in the intermediate time between death and the general resurrection."

a Psalm xvi. 10.

b Homer, Hesiod, Plato, and other ancient Greek writers, distinguish 'Aons from Taprapos, which was the place of punishment for the wicked. Vide Dr. Nicholls's exposition of this Article.

and ending in his death. The same author shows, that the burial of our Lord, and his descent into hades, were long regarded as synonymous; and he quotes Vossius, who says, that the churches of the East originally understood by Christ's descent into hell what the churches of the West denominated his burial. At what time, he continues, these synonymous expressions began to be joined, as if they differed in meaning, cannot be exactly ascertained. Erasmus is of opinion, that this was done by Thomas Aquinas about 1365.

[St. Paul's expression is: Eug ra κατώτερα μέρη της γης, which St. Chrysostom says, means death, according to men's notion: Homil. in Ephes. iv. 9.; and the learned Witsius conjectures that this may be understood as comprehending the whole state of Christ's humiliation, beginning in his nativity,

Though there is this unquestionable authority for the doctrine of this Article, Christ's descent into Hell, or Hades, is not mentioned in the abstracts of Christian faith which the early fathers have left us; nor is it in any of those numerous creeds which were composed by the councils of the fourth century, except that which was agreed to at Arimini in the year 359. The word there used is Karayovia, and it is plain from the context that this word cannot mean, as some have supposed, merely that Christ was buried, εις τα καταχθονια κατελθοντα, και τα εκείσε οικονομησαντα οἱ πυλωροι Αδου ιδοντες ἔφριξαν. In the beginning of the fifth century the church at Aquileia, as we learn from Ruffin, used the corresponding expression, descendit ad inferna; but at the same time he informs us, that there was no similar article in the creeds then used, either at Rome, or in the eastern churches." In the sixth century this article was admitted into many creeds, and it was confirmed by the fourth council of Toledo, A. D. 633. The word 'Aons was first used in the Athanasian creed, which, as will hereafter appear, was not composed till many years after the death of Athanasius.

It seems probable that this doctrine of Christ's descent into Hell was first introduced into creeds

Witsius, however, shows that the descent of the soul of Christ ought to be regarded as distinct from the burial of the body, but ends by describing it as metaphorical rather than proper and real. Witsius on the Creed. - EDITOR.]

a In ecclesiæ Romanæ symbolo non habetur additum, Descendit ad inferna sed neque in orientis ecclesia habetur hic sermo. Ruff. Exp. Symb.

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